African leaders gathered for a continent-wide summit voted to give themselves and their allies immunity from prosecution for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide at a new African Court of Justice and Human Rights.

The decision comes as the continent confronts human-rights violations and has two sitting presidents and one ousted president facing charges at the International Criminal Court.

Amnesty International called it “a backward step in the fight against impunity and a betrayal of victims of serious violations of human rights.”

“At a time when the African continent is struggling to ensure that there is accountability for serious human-rights violations and abuses, it is impossible to justify this decision which undermines the integrity of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights, even before it becomes operational,” said Amnesty’s Netsanet Belay.

Sue W on
July 2nd, 2014 at 20:37:

Isn’t it odd that Al Jazeera isn’t popular with, for example, the Egyptian regime?

Kharkov on
July 3rd, 2014 at 2:43:

So… We’re not planning to rob the bank, definitely not, we’d never do such a terrible thing, no sirree bob. But… we’d like to pass a law protecting us from prosecution if one of us ever robs a bank…
Yep, seems legit. It’s not like banks (cough: War Crimes! cough cough Crimes Against Humanity!) have ever been robbed in Africa in the past and it’s completely impossible that such things would happen in the future…
Carry on then, nothing to see here.
[facepalm]